Anton Khudobin is finally healthy enough to return from an ankle injury, but he won’t play for the Carolina Hurricanes yet and there’s no guarantee that he will ever get another start with the club.
When the Hurricanes signed Khudobin, there was talk of him putting pressure on starting goaltender Cam Ward. However, since Khudobin went down on Oct. 13, Justin Peters has asserted himself as a serious contender to serve as the team’s number one netminder. Peters is currently making his third straight start in tonight’s game versus Pittsburgh.
There was speculation that either Khudobin or Peters would be traded last week and while that didn’t happen, the possibility still remains.
Carolina has three viable NHL netminders all inked to one-way deals. Although the conditioning stint will buy the Hurricanes more time, they can’t permanently send any of their goalies to the minors without first exposing them to waivers.
So barring an injury, the Hurricanes options will soon be down to having three goalies on their roster, risk losing one to waivers, or pulling the trigger on a trade.